


where you gonna run to?

by Solovei



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: BB Lesbian Vanya Hargreeves, Canon-typical levels of incest, Conversations, Crushes, Discussions of sexuality, Drabble, Klaus is into anything and everything, Klaus offers advice and it kind of works???, Klaus/Ben if you squint super hard, Nothing actually happens in the fic though, One Shot, Pre-Canon, Rated mostly for language, Teenagers, They're just talking, Vanya and Klaus are 17 here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 07:50:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18567055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solovei/pseuds/Solovei
Summary: "So what is this really about, little sister? You got a crush on someone?”People tended to dismiss Klaus, but he could be pretty perceptive at times.





	where you gonna run to?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crazyjane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazyjane/gifts).



> I was gifted a lovely work about how awesome Klaus' hugs are and that led to this particular plotbunny, and how Vanya and Klaus must've been close when they were younger. Enjoy!

Vanya entered the room hesitantly, both because of the very high possibility of empty bottles and who knows what else littering the floor and because Klaus had a tendency to not wear much in the way of clothes when he thought nobody was around. There was another, third reason, but she didn’t even consider it anymore, because it has become second nature to her. She didn’t know what it’s like to not have this reason. 

She remembered the weeks of arguments after Klaus moved all his things here, the endless bargaining with Sir Reginald, the disappointed looks from Grace, Pogo’s quiet lectures. He said he didn’t want to live so close to Allison and Luther anymore, but she knew there was something else to it. Klaus was pushing, trying to see how far he could stretch being the Disappointing One until something gave way. Getting this room was a big push, and he had won, but she knew he would only go further from there. Vanya stopped noticing him sneaking back in through the fire escape by now.

After he emerged victorious from The Room Argument, Klaus spent the next two years filling it with all manner of treasures, a mish-mash of patterns and textures and lights. Projects he started and never finished, clothes and art he acquired who-knows-where, hidden stashes of candy and alcohol and harder vices. Vanya envied her brother, a little. While she longed for something to make her special, he managed to be the strangest in a group of already extraordinary people, and he wore his strangeness like a battle flag. 

“Klaus?” Vanya called out, carefully stepping over a pile of clothes. The faint smell of sulfur hung in the air - Ben had been in here recently. 

Klaus looked up from where he sat cross-legged on his bed, window open out of habit even though there was no cigarette in his hand. Vanya noticed his distinct lack of a shirt and pursed her lips for a moment, but at least he wore pants. She wondered what Ben had been doing in his room.

“Heeeeeeey, V.” Klaus had this way of saying hello as though he wasn’t quite sure who you were until he finished saying it.

“Hi. Can we talk?” She took a few more steps, picking out a clear path.

Number Four pushed himself off the bed and walked across her intended path to sit on one of the cushions he had strewn in a vague circular shape on the floor. He gestured for her to join him with a sweeping motion of his arm, “Step into my boudoir, little sister~”

He’d started calling her after her height (as measured and recorded by Pogo every six months) had failed to change for the fourth time in a row. “Klaus we’re the same age,” Vanya rolled her eyes and sat down on the floor, tucking her legs under her skirt.

He looked at her expectantly, but didn’t say anything, waiting for her to start. Vanya sighed. She’d gotten this far, but hadn’t considered how to actually broach the subject. Perhaps a roundabout way was best. “So… You know… you know how Luther and Allison are always like, giving each other those _looks?_ At the table, during lessons… They think nobody sees it but we all do?”

Klaus stuck out his tongue in derision “Ugh, I know. Who do they think they’re fooling?”

“Well… I… I guess I wanted to ask…Who… is there anyone _you_ …” 

He gave her a lazy smirk and shifted his posture, all but languishing over the pillows like a cat in a sunbeam and raising his eyebrows suggestively. “Why, you jealous?” 

Vanya threw the first thing that found its way into her hand - a half-empty carton of cigarettes - at him, but Klaus caught it deftly, laughing. “Well you can’t blame me! You were being vague! I gotta assume the best, y’know?” He sounded just a tad bit disappointed as he put the small cardboard box away and sat up. “Anyway, to answer your question, I’ve thankfully never been as insane as _those two_ but sure, there’ve been people. Not sure I could give you an accurate estimate--” 

“ _People?_ ”

“Yeah. You know. Humans. Or whatever, man. I’m flexible.” He said, closing his eyes.

Vanya drew her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on her folded arms. “So… boys… and girls?” 

“You can’t tell me you’re surprised.”

She wasn’t surprised, and shook her head with a faint smile. If the everyone in this house knew about Numbers One and Three, then entire world knew about Number Four. The subject of Klaus’s love life had been a juicy topic for the gossip magazines for several years now, fuelled largely by his own cryptic statements whenever a reporter asked him if there was anyone he liked. 

“And I _know_ you’re not, so what is this really about, little sister? You got a crush on someone?” People tended to dismiss Klaus, but he could be pretty perceptive at times.

Vanya averted her eyes, trying to escape his probing gaze. “I don’t… not exactly, I just…”

“Okay, how about this -- When you’re alone, you know, like… late at night. And you close your eyes. Who do you see?” 

Vanya thought for a moment about Five, his angular face and piercing eyes. She remembered the last time she saw him, four years ago at breakfast, her silent plea and his equally silent apology. She was older now, but some part of her kept scanning the faces of passerby on the street, trying to find him again. 

She thought about the time she had crept downstairs to the kitchen and heard a girl’s voice coming from Klaus’s room, all soft giggles and breathless sighs, and Vanya found herself unable to walk away, wanting to absorb all of that voice into herself, not sure if she wanted to become it or be the cause of it. 

She thought about the way Allison would do her makeup in front of the mirror, eyes fixed on the reflection, seeing and not seeing; how she had started wearing her skirts shorter lately, how there were times when she’d come down for meals and the top button on her blouse would be undone, revealing her clavicle. She thought about how she sometimes caught Allison looking at Luther and wondered what it would be like to be on the receiving end of that look. It was a look that said, _you are the only person in this room that matters_. 

Maybe Klaus had eyes for everyone, but Allison… Allison only had eyes for Luther.

Vanya shook her head. “Nobody, I guess,” she lied.

Klaus reached for the carton of cigarettes again and took one out, tucking it behind his ear with practiced ease. “Oh come on, V. Everyone’s got someone they like! Even just a little bit. Like, the person you hate the least, how about that?”

She gave him a wan smile. “Well… even if there _was_ , I don’t think they’d like me back.” 

Klaus leaned over and placed his hands on her shoulders, and she couldn’t avert his eyes now, not without him noticing. She forced herself to accept this intimacy, took a second to notice the slightly odd tinge of his skin, the faint smell of tobacco and sweat. There was a bruise on his neck. 

“V, listen to me,” he said, resolute. ”Someday, you’re gonna get the fuck out of this house. And you’re gonna leave all of Dad’s bullshit behind you, and you’re gonna meet a chick with like, just… the nicest fucking smile and great big titties. Or some guy who's got twelve-pack abs and a huge dick. Or maybe both, you never know. And that… that person is gonna love _the hell out of you_.” 

For a few moments, there was silence. Vanya felt his words float over her, through her. On the way, they snagged on the jagged edges of the empty space inside her, threatening to pull something loose, painful and gaping. 

“... Are you high right now?” she asked, deadpan.

“Only a little!” 

Vanya smirked and pushed him away, watching as he tumbled to the floor in a fit of giggles. 

“Don’t let Grace catch you smoking that.” She said before getting up and picking her way over the mess on the floor back to her room. 

_Someday._


End file.
